I have long been a fan of the walkers brand and I have been eating your delicious treats for as long as I can remember. In 2003 Walkers re-launched the popular Smiths snack, Salt ‘n’ Shake and cleverly retitled it to Salt & Shake to erase any confusion, genius.

I was excited when I first heard the news that Walkers were buying the snack from Smiths because I thought that this could potentially be a game changer in the world of crisp.

When I was a young boy I used to buy a packet of Salt and Shake once in a while for the novelty, but I was always unimpressed with the range of flavours available.

The problem was, unless you were a fan of ready salted crisp they were not the most desirable snack on the shelves. I once tried to add vinegar to a bag in an attempt to try and create my own version of salt and vinegar flavoured crisps, but that went horribly wrong. That was the day that I learnt that snacks are far more complicated to make than they look.

Anyway getting back to my point, I was wondering why Walkers have not capitalised on this brand that they acquired over ten years ago by releasing more flavours. I was looking forward to BBQ flavour, Spicy flavour or even the possibility of mixing two flavours together to create a brand new exciting flavour. I thought the 2003 reboot was going to be an amazing new adventure for Walkers but it has been disappointing to see that the Salt & Shake brand other than the name has not evolved since its creation in the 1920s.

Please can you let me know if Walkers have any future plans to expand the brand in the near future? I have been eagerly awaiting something since 2003. I have put together a list of flavours (copyrighted of course) that I think could put Salt & Shake back on the map. I would be happy to share these ideas with you if you are interested.

Regards,

Sebastian Bowen.

Walkers Response

Dear Mr Bowen

Thank you for taking the time to write to us. We are so pleased to have received your letter saying how much you like and enjoy our Walkers Salt & Shake Crisps and that you would like to see new exciting flavours in the range.

Your comments are really very special to us because it’s your opinion that counts and is the reason for everything we do. I will be sharing your valued comments with our Marketing Team as I know they are always eager to learn what people think of our products.

Adding new flavours to our current range is always a really difficult decision and one that our Marketing Development Teams and their agencies face every day. They understand that everyone has their own individual ideas and unique taste buds, giving endless choices and combinations of flavours!!

One thing you can rely on is that we will always do our best to bring you a wide variety of amazingly tasty, top quality products that are hard to resist.

Thanks again for letting us know the kind of flavours you would like to see us making in the future and I hope you will continue to enjoy our products for many years to come.

Yours Sincerely,

Rhiannon Thomas
Customer Services.

My Response

Hello Rhiannon,
Thank you for responding to my letter, it’s nice to know that some snack companies really care about their consumers.

Just to correct you slightly, I am not enjoying the Salt & Shake range due to the lack of flavours and ambition. I stated in my letter that I was never a big fan of ready salted crisp which is why I would shy away from them in the past. I was hoping that when Walkers picked up the brand they would have done something amazing with it, but I am still waiting.

You say in your letter that adding flavours to your current range is always a really difficult decision. I would love to know what your decision making process is, I may be able to help. I make important decisions all the time; I would consider myself an expert at it. In all the years I have been making decisions none of those decision have taken me 11 years to make. Isn’t that the opposite of making a decision, the very definition of indecisive?

It’s not like you have a shortage of existing flavours, I don’t understand why some of those flavours can’t be transferred to the Salt & Shake brand. Whoever is in charge of making the decisions over there should be fired or demoted at the very least. I hope it’s not Gary Lineker. He may be excellent when it comes to talking about football but not so good when it comes to making decisions about anything else. Did you see him on Match of the Day this weekend? It looked like his face was still trying to decide whether or not to have a moustache or not.

Anyway I digress. You mentioned in your letter that my ideas will be passed onto the Marketing team for review; I expect you will pay me handsomely if you decide to move forward with any of my ideas. For payment, I will accept a 5 Million Pounds one off fee or a life time supply of crisps. I am not a hard man to please, and I understand we are all struggling in this current financial crisis.

Please let me know if you would like me to forward you photocopies of my recipes. I have put together possible flavours and brand new flavours that nobody has ever used before! Such things like Jerk Chicken, Pancake & Maple Syrup or my personal favourite Veal with Portabello Mushrooms. I worked hard to refine these flavours and I think they would all be suitable for the Walkers Brand. Please let me know how you would like to proceed.

Once again thank you for your time and I look forward to your response.

Regards,

Sebastian Bowen.

Walkers Response

Dear Mr Bowen,

Thank you very much for your further letter.

I am sorry that you are not currently enjoying the Salt & Shake due to not having other flavours available, as my colleague mentioned adding new flavours to the Salt & Shake range is always a really difficult decision and one that our R&D and Marketing Team faces every day.

We understand that everyone has their own individual ideas and unique taste buds, giving endless choices and combinations of flavours!!

We are always very interested in new ideas which could possibly help our business. However we are committed to several outside agencies and our own employees who devote their time and energy to dreaming up imaginative new ideas for new products and improving our current range.

Experience has also taught us that many ideas we receive have either been considered are actually in development or have been used previously by ourselves, our competitors or have been ruled out for various reasons.

I will however forward all your comments on to you Marketing team for their attention.

Thank you once again for taking the time to contact us.

Yours Sincerely,

Mandeep Riyat
Customer Services.

My Response

Hello Mandeep,

Thank you for responding to my letter regarding the Salt and Shake Range.
Firstly I must ask what happened to Rhiannon. I hope I didn’t upset her, is she ok?

You state in your letter that adding flavours to the Salt & Shake range is always a difficult decision. I am not aware that there has ever been any other flavour added to the Salt & Shake range since 1920. Why does it take almost One Hundred years to add one extra flavour?

Like I said in my previous letter I am not sure who is making the decisions over there but they don’t seem to be doing a very good job.

These outside agencies that you speak of appear to be dragging their feet on the matter. Your best outside agents are your customers. Your customers know what they want and have definitely eaten more Walkers crisps than all of your staff put together. Put your trust in us.

Mandeep I don’t want a generic robot response back from you, I would like an actual human response that addresses the point I am making in my letter. No company takes one hundred years to make such a small decision. Even if I take into consideration that Walkers only acquired the Salt and Shake Brand in 2003, that is still well over ten years to make up your mind on the next flavour.

In my opinion you have really dropped the ball on this one. Considering Gary Lineker is the celebrity who endorses the Walkers Brand, I find that totally unacceptable.

I look forward to your response and possible solution to the problem,
Regards,